Awfully Silly
by Summoner Lenne10
Summary: If Luna could concentrate for more than a few moments at a time she could perhaps see what is right in front of her. NevilleLuna, HBP


A/n: I've been so terribly obsessed with Remus and Tonks lately, I've honestly completely forgotten Luna is my favorite character! I have to fix that now, don't I? She's also a good challenge for me to write, and that's good. And I adore her and Neville, so here you go.

_**Awfully Silly**_

Neville had offered to help Luna with her Herbology O.W.L. preparation homework because she mentioned she was having trouble ("I don't think it's my fault, of course, Professor Sprout seems to be absolutely taken with a case of Chipmunking Apparatus, but I cannot make heads of tails of what she was saying, and O.W.L.'s _are_ terribly important after all.") and it was something that he could, for once, help her with.

Having Luna pay attention for more than a few fleeting moments at a time, though, was easier said than done.

She would focus on their text books for a good few minutes, sitting lounged under the shade of a great oak in the grounds, and the light would play very prettily on her hair and she'd be lounging close enough to him that her knee would brush his-

And then she would jump up, positively float about, and point to a cloud. "Do you see that shape? Daddy always told me that clouds are fore-warners of disaster, but I honestly cannot see the impending danger in a Pygmy Puff." she bit her lip and looked critically at the cloud- as critically as she ever could, of course, with her light brows knitted together but her eyes still wide and glazed creating quiet an odd effect, before she nodded to herself and said, "It's the Rotfang conspiracy again."

Neville would half-heartedly ask her to come back, too accustomed to her odd views by now to be startled or perplexed anymore, well not very much anyway, and after a few moments she would notice him, give an "Oooh" with perfectly pouted lips, and promptly plop right back down next to him.

This continued for any number of times with any number of distractions, but after a bit she seemed to calm down, and Neville attempted to explain to her how to properly shear a Poisonous Grantloupe- wishing for the life of him he had a visual example, because it was hard to gesture with just his hands to the proper technique. He also felt like an utter prat, but that was besides the point.

He was in the middle of making an absolutely fool of himself, floundering about, when he noticed she was once again staring in another direction, with that look of odd concentration on her face.

"Luna..." he began with a heavy sigh, "I can't really help you if you don't-"

"It seems like an awful bother, doesn't it?" she asked, turning to him with her head cocked slightly, her large eyes starling blue.

"Ummm... I suppose? But if you just remember the proper steps-"

"No. Not that." She waved her hang lazily as if an irksome fly was in her way, "I mean them." She pointed off in the distance. Neville noticed Lavender Brown and Ron Weasley, currently being very... well acquainted with each other. The sight brought a rosy blush to Neville's cheeks, as it continued doing whenever he thought of the matter or so the matter, which honestly no one had _not_ seen the matter considering how inconspicious they were about it, and he huffed out, "Well, uhh, I suppose it could be... tiring..." he was growing redder by the moment and willing a hole to appear in the ground and suck him down about now.

"Seems an awfully silly reason to loose a good mate, doesn't it?" she asked, turning to him perplexedly. She looked very pretty and Neville, already quiet red, quickly diverted her eyes from her startlingly clear blue ones and then noticed Hermione Granger, apparently studying beneath a nearby tree, but for all the world glaring so furiously at the Ron and Lavender Neville was rather surprised they hadn't combusted yet. Her shoulders were hunched and she was drawn in on herself, and Neville felt terribly bad for her.

"I suppose it does, Luna." He said, returning his glance to her, she had shifted on the ground slightly and placed her head in her hands- seemingly completely in a different world, day dreaming away. He wondered whether he should shake her back to reality, or her version anyway. He had long since realized they had differing opinions on the matter.

"Everyone's so busy this year," she said, wistfully, "Worrying who's snogging who- it seems silly after last year. You-Know-Who's out there, and Harry Potter is too busy worrying about Ginny Weasley." she sighed and took her hands away from her jaw and instead went to twisting a lock of hair around her index finger, "I suppose it's his choice, after all. If I was him I'd like a few normal moments as well, but it just seems like a silly waste of time." She shook out her pretty hair and then sighed and returned to glancing down at the O.W.L preparation material with an annoyed frown on her face. It was an odd expression for her.

"You think?" Said Neville, momentarily distracted from his contribution to the world's greater good for the day, "Harry and Ginny?"

Luna looked up, slightly surprised- well perhaps, she always looked some form of surprised, even though truthfully little surprised her. "Oh, yes. It's very obvious. He can never stop looking at her, and he glares at Dean Thomas wherever he goes." Come to think of it, Harry had been oddly cold and distant with Dean lately. "I wonder the same thing with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger- I don't understand why they don't just tell each other their affections." She sighed again, "I understand the appeal- it would probably feel wonderful to be that close to someone. Emotionally, I mean." She added, with for perhaps the first time since he'd known her a hint of rose touching her pale cheeks- but it was gone a moment later and Neville was sure he imagined it, "Being alone is terribly lonely. But all of this? It just seems like a waste. Not when there are people dying out there." She sighed and looked very lonely and lovely.

Neville found himself unable to speak, his throat closing around all speech. His face was turning devastatingly red, and his heart was hammering very, _very_ loudly in his chest. Or perhaps his throat. He didn't quiet know. Luna had returned to the Herbology material half heartedly, and was staring at it all with an expression of vacant interest.

"Well... uhhh... you know..." he got out, inwardly telling himself he was Gryffindor, but honestly feeling like he was going to faint in a moment. The world was starting to seem a bit claustrophobic, sinking in on him and spiraling around and there was a terrible weight in his chest that constrained any attempts at breathing. "If... you... uhh... don't want to be... or want to be... uhh... that is... lonely or... well, not..."

She looked up at him and then smiled brightly, "I'm very happy to have you as a friend though Neville. Its nice to know I'm not the only one who isn't having some terrible drama. I suppose that's what I miss the most about the DA, a feeling of unity and connection." She smiled at him and patted his hand, "We can be lonely together."

Neville felt his heart quiet literally fall down into abdomen, and then mummered, after a moment, "... Yes I suppose we can... well, if you look at this diagram..."

If he sounded as crushed as he thought he did, Luna did not show the slightest inkling of noticing.


End file.
